A VVivacious Release Day Review: Talking in Code by Ariel Tachna

Standard

Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5

Richard and Tim aka Dav met in the SEALs and have been in a relationship for around twenty years. Now they run their own paramilitary organization, Strike Force Omega where they meet Eric who rounds up their threesome.

Four months ago, Eric gets captured leading to months of torture and imprisonment. In a twist of fate his rescue coincides with Tim getting gravely injured in the field. With Tim unconscious in an ICU, for the first time Richard has to step up in a role that has always been Tim’s and help ease Eric back to life as they know it.

What Richard soon discovers is that Richard and Eric have no idea what their relationship is like without Tim acting as the intermediary. With Eric’s PTSD rearing its ugly head, will Richard and Eric make it through with two lives on the line?

Before I start this review I must say two things – Firstly, read the official blurb it is the best introduction to this book and it is spot on. Secondly, I have no idea what to write in this review so far, this book is amazing but I am finding it very hard to articulate my feelings on paper. So, if my review ends up making no sense just know that I loved the book, it is amazing and if you like the blurb then read it because the book delivers on everything that the blurb promises.

First I am not a very prolific reader when it comes to MMM romances, but on the other hand I also love MMM romances that are riddled with angst and problems as three men try to navigate their way through life together. For one I find happy MMM romances unreal because unless the threesome has been together for a long time I don’t understand how three men can just fit in like they were moulded together. Every couple has an adjustment period, so it stands to logic that a threesome would have triple the adjustment period because there are three couples in the mix and one relationship. This also happens to be one of the facts that made me love this book because even though Richard, Tim and Eric have been together for four years, they are still discovering new things in their relationship, like the fact that Richard and Eric have always had Tim and thus, kind of neglected finding their own equation with each other. Richard & Tim know where they stand with each other courtesy of the fact that they have been together for a long time and Tim & Eric are completely in sync especially when it comes to settling Eric back into routine life after he comes back from an op. But then there is Eric & Richard who love each other but have never really tried to figure out who and what they are to the other. This made for an interesting premise and it translated very well into the book.

Also I fell in love with both Richard and Eric. These two were on fire. They shared such a sensual intimacy that every scene that they share together in this book, including the sex scenes, reads like the most important thing to the story. In a way I feel like in every story sex while important to a relationship and in some relationships it can be the defining feature of the relationship does little for story progression and I mean the actual sex scene, not what comes of it but in this story I just felt like the sex between these two was writing the story, making it an absolute delight to read this book.

The half star deduction is actually for Tim, all this focus on Richard and Eric has the unfortunate side effect that we just don’t know Tim well enough. As far as I can tell this book is going to be a first in a series and I hope this means that we still have time to get to know Tim and work out who these three are together. But the story is complete in itself, so I have no idea if the next in this series will feature these three, if a sequel is in fact in the works. But one thing that I really liked with regards to Tim was the fact that Richard refers to Tim as Dav while Eric refers to him as Tim which kind of makes me feel that it is Richard & Dav and Eric & Tim, which kind of highlights the different equations he has with the two but I could be reading into things that aren’t there because it might just be because of the fact that Richard has nicknames for both of them and his nickname for Tim is Dav.

This story is a romance through and through, despite the fact that the story is set in a military/para-military background. I read this book in a single setting, I just couldn’t stop. I simply adored the book.

While this book is a MMM and the fact that this relationship is a threesome is absolutely essential for the premise to work, the fact is we only get to see Eric, Richard and Tim together in a sex scene only twice. Personally this wasn’t a problem for me because we do get a fair idea of how these three function together in their relationship through their conversations with each other which were priceless to me.

After all is said and done, I would just like to say, I loved this book. It was an amazing and delightful read that had me turning pages one after the other and I am completely in love with Richard and Eric.

This is my first book by this author but it definitely won’t be my last by her.